The vanity metric trap
Follower counts and likes feel good but rarely correlate with business outcomes. A post with 10,000 impressions and zero clicks is not valuable.
Meaningful metrics connect social activity to actual goals: website visits, sign-ups, sales conversations, or brand searches.
Engagement rate: the foundation metric
Engagement rate measures how much your audience interacts with your content relative to your reach. It shows whether your content resonates.
Calculate it by dividing total engagements by impressions or followers. Track this over time to see if your content quality is improving.
- Good engagement rate varies by platform: 1 to 3 percent is typical.
- Compare your rate to your own history, not influencers.
- High engagement with low reach may mean algorithm issues.
Click-through rate: intent signals
When someone clicks a link, they are showing real interest. Click-through rate measures how effectively your content drives action.
Track CTR on posts with links to your website, landing pages, or offers. Low CTR might mean weak calls to action or misaligned content.
Conversion tracking: the bottom line
Ultimate ROI comes from conversions: sign-ups, purchases, or qualified leads that originated from social media.
Use UTM parameters on your links so you can trace conversions back to specific posts and campaigns.
- Set up UTM tracking for all social links.
- Create dedicated landing pages for campaigns.
- Track the full funnel from click to conversion.
Share of voice and brand mentions
How often are people talking about your brand compared to competitors? This measures awareness growth.
Track mentions, tags, and branded searches over time. Growing share of voice indicates increasing market presence.
Building a measurement dashboard
Choose 5 to 7 key metrics aligned with your goals. Review them weekly and do deeper analysis monthly.
Content Drifter analytics can help you track post performance and identify patterns in what works.
- Weekly: engagement rate, clicks, new followers.
- Monthly: conversion rate, top performing content, audience growth.
- Quarterly: ROI calculation, strategy adjustments.